Some modes of transportation, such as trains, buses, and airplane shuttles enable a user to travel from a first location to a second location (e.g., from a departure airport to a destination airport, from a first train station to a second train station, etc.) in accordance with a timetable that comprises a plurality of departure and arrival times. When traveling by such modes of transportation, a user typically decides which particular train, bus, airplane flight, etc. to take based on the desired time-of-arrival at the destination.
For example, a hockey fan who is in Red Bank, N.J. might wish to see a 8:00 PM Rangers hockey game at Madison Square Garden and might decide to travel to the game by train. Typically, the hockey fan will choose a particular train (e.g., the 6:36 PM North Jersey Coast train, etc.) from a timetable so that he or she will arrive at Madison Square Garden at a “good” time. A “good” time might depend on the preferences of the individual, but would typically be sometime before 8:00 PM, and not too much before 8:00 PM (for example, arriving at 4:00 PM would generally be considered undesirable, and probably worse than arriving at 8:10 PM).
FIG. 1 depicts the salient portions of exemplary timetable 100 for the northbound North Jersey Coast Line train, in the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, timetable 100 comprises a plurality of entries, each of which indicates a time at which a train is scheduled to be present at a particular station. Each row in timetable 100 thus corresponds to a particular train.
The hockey fan might take into account historical schedule divergences when deciding which train to take. For example, in the above example, the typical delays for a train scheduled to leave Red Bank at 6:36 PM and arrive at Madison Square Garden at 7:52 PM might be such that the expected arrival time is actually sometime between 7:49 PM and 8:10 PM. Based on this information, a hockey fan might prefer to take an earlier train that is scheduled to leave at 6:05 PM and arrive at 7:19 PM, with an actual arrival time sometime between 7:18 PM and 7:37 PM.
In a more complex example, such as when the hockey fan must first drive five miles from his or her house to the Red Bank train station, the hockey fan decides (i) which train to take, as well as (ii) when to leave the house, based on the train timetable and an estimate of how long it will take to travel by car from the house to the train station (e.g., 10 minutes, between 10 and 20 minutes, etc.). Similarly, if the hockey fan is going to a concert at Carnegie Hall instead of a Rangers game, the hockey fan should also consider the time required to get to Carnegie Hall from Madison Square Garden (which might also be based on a timetable, such as a bus schedule) when deciding which train to take from Red Bank.
As illustrated by the above examples, it can be difficult for a hockey fan to decide which train, bus, etc. to select from a timetable when a trip comprises a plurality of segments, or when the arrival time can be affected by factors such as schedule divergences, weather, traffic, etc. Often the hockey fan miscalculates and arrives late, or is so apprehensive about arriving late that he or she arrives much too early.